Report: Brandon Spikes placed on IR due to tardiness at team meeting in bye week

FOXBORO — On the morning of their divisional playoff game against the Colts, there is word that the latest starter on defense to end his season on injured reserve didn’t land there because of injury alone.

The team had practices and meetings on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of the team’s bye week, including the morning of the major snow storm “Hercules” that hit New England on Jan. 3. It was being late to that Friday meeting that Mortensen reported was the “final straw” for Bill Belichick.

The Globe’s Shalise Manza Young reported before the regular season finale that Spikes’ knee issues would require surgery as soon as the season was over.

Spikes played in all 16 games of the regular season for the first time in his four-year career, finished third in team tackles as the team’s best run-stopping linebacker. The news of Spikes being disciplined in this way is an ominous sign for his return to New England in 2014 as he is a free agent after the season.

Brandon Spikes hobbled with knee but being late to Friday's bye week practice was final straw for Belichick. Mutually, to IR, per sources